ED questions Rituparna Sengupta; claims her firm was paid Rs 7.5 crore

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday questioned Tollywood actress Rituparna Sengupta in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam at its offices in Kolkata's CGO Complex, for over seven hours.

The central probe agency, which is probing the Rs 15,000 crore chit fund case had summoned Sengupta to appear before its officials with regards to money allegedly received by her firm from the Rose Valley Group.

Sources in the know said that the Gautam Kundu-owned chit fund group had between 2012-11 allegedly paid around Rs 7.5 crore to Bhavna Aaj O Kal, a production house owned by Sengupta.

According to her website, the production house is "her dream company, where she has assembled great concepts and ideas of various kinds". The company has produced dance reality shows, television programme and a makeover programme for girls.

Earlier this week, the ED had also summoned Bengali film superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee in connection with the chit fund scam. Officials said that one of his firms, Idea Locations and Production Pvt Ltd, had allegedly received Rs 2.75 crore from the scam-tainted company between 2010-11. The filmstar allegedly received Rs 23.5 lakh of this amount.

He has acted in several films produced and distributed by the Rose Valley, notable among them being ''Moner Manush'' and ''Hangover''.

Chatterjee has been summoned to appear beofre ED officials in Kolkata today.

Officials had said that the film stars will be questioned so that they can explain the nature of their transactions with the Rose Valley Group.

Gautam Kundu, the chairman of the chit fund company is currently under judicial custody and has not been questioned by ED investigators in the recent past.

The central probe agency has filed six chargesheet in the case so far and attached properties worth around Rs 4,500 crore.